03-IX-1990.
Nina's first day at school. We didn't give her the big leather schoolbag we bought in Germany, too big for her. She's thin and light. She walks her to Zmaj. It turns out her teacher is that nice guy we met two years ago at the sea, a friend of Susjed's (v. house dictionary) son. She later recalled he was a really great guy, loved his job. Of course he didn't last, they found a way to get him out of the picture and replace him with some goose.
As for the house, we reached the point when the upstairs should be built. The mansarde, that is - two lower walls on the side, and up to the gable front and back, and another serklaž aka venac on top of the lower part. We two often rode our bicycles to the placić (plac, from germ. Platz, place - actually means a building lot), now on the new road around bager, finally paved. At the corner, where the old path met the Naftagas yard, some parasite plant set root among the weeds. It usually attacks clover, it's those yellow threads which... and then she asked me what was the name of it, and I fired a „kuskuta epifitum“ right off, because I just remembered how Eči told us how he had to learn a bunch of agricultural machinery at petefi, and among them a dekuskutor, which extracts this shit out of chopped clover by using magnets, because that plant somehow accumulates sufficient iron. „I know the latin [name] myself, what's it in serbian?“. Well, no go, brain clog, full stop.
The next day we ride that way again, and on the same spot, almost on cue, we both said „vilina kosica“ (fairy's hair).
To build the upstairs, we first, of course, had to get the blocks up there. For that a moba created itself, Tereza and her husband offered help. Okay... to avoid lifting it straight up by hand, I nailed inch thick planks along Žića's plank, bought 20m of nylon rope, wound it double and tied knots every half meter. We leaned the plank against the the terrace side wall, so the girls would put a block on the bottom end of the plank, hook the lower loop of the rope around it, and we guys would pull it up, taking turns. It went smoothly, it's just that he was worried about his fingers, he's not just a violin player, he's a professor of violin in musical high school. But no aftereffects occurred, and we got the job done.
And we were lucky that the weather was marvelous, and we weren't in much of a hurry - whatever we do will be enough. And it was roughly so, we used those blocks to build these walls in the following weeks. Using my own technique, the way I read it should be done, by manufacturer's instructions, not what the majstors say. Because they use too much mortar, putting as much as two centimeters between rows, which is necessary for bricks, as they are molded and baked and can be of uneven sizes, shapes and whatnots. This is poured in huge blocks which are then sawed exactly to measure, never off by more than 1mm. So that 1mm of mortar is enough, of the strongest cement, and to wet the blocks before spreading the mortar, as the material is strongly thirsty. And I achieved it, these walls are thread straight, just like those in the basement were (for which Faik specially praised me, said „every honor, majstor, you did it as if for yourself“.
There was the issue of the height of these sidewalls. The line I heard stated that it should be about one meter, i.e. four rows of blocks. And we did so... except it wasn't quite so. Because it was supposed to mean four rows of 20cm blocks, plus the concrete frame, a meter. But our blocks were 25cm tall (or 30, but we laid them flat, so our walls were 30cm thick), and another 25cm of the frame, so it came out at 125cm, and on top of it the 10cm of the venčanica* beam... So next year the majstors who raised the roof found everything offhand, it all being above their customary level. But then our mansarde turned out that much larger, because the slanted ceilings weren't ending so low.
Much later (in 2024, when I was editing something else) it came to my mind that this was perhaps a belated result of all the head banging against the slanted ceiling in Cafe Schwarz, v. 13-VI-1990....
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* like I said in 24-V-1988. footnote, 'venac' means several things, among others a crown or a wreath, including the one placed on the newlyweds' heads during the wedding. Actually, 'wedding' is 'venčanje', i.e. wreathing. Then this beam, 'venčanica', means 'the wreath beam' but is accidentally the same word as the wedding gown. It's all connected.
Mentions: 24-V-1988., 13-VI-1990., bager, Endre Felbab (Eči), Faik Rizvani, house dictionary, majstor, moba, Nevena Sredljević (Nina), petefi, Tereza Mazek, Zmaj, Žića, in serbian
21-XII-2017 - 7-IV-2026